


Best (Dog) Friends Forever

by deanisthesun (become_normal)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Sam Has a Dog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 08:23:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4341254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/become_normal/pseuds/deanisthesun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Today, Sam is going to get a dog.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best (Dog) Friends Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [captainshakespear](https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainshakespear/gifts).



> For my gen-baby, Sam-Winchester-lovin' [BFF](captainshakespear.tumblr.com). Happy very belated birthday.

Today, Sam is going to get a dog.

That’s right, a dog. From the animal shelter a couple miles into town. Maybe a retriever, or a beagle, or maybe he’ll just know it when he sees it. Really, Sam doesn’t mind what type it’ll be, he just wants it to be his best friend.

Dean and Cas are on a hunt in Tulsa, just a quick salt and burn case, and shouldn’t be back until tomorrow so it gives Sam the rest of the day to go find a dog. That way, by the time they get back it’ll be too late for Dean to say no.

Sam gets on the road reasonably early in the morning. He shoots a text off to Dean and Cas, asking how the hunt is going, but he wakes up earlier in the morning than either of them, and doesn’t hear back until he reaches the border to Phillipsburg.

He had looked up shelters in near-by towns and called the ones that looked the most promising to get a better sense of what kind of establishment he was going to get a dog from. Sam thinks most people are too careless about that sort of thing but he wants to make sure the dog is coming from a good place, even if it is going to a better one.

Sam would have never considered having a pet before they had the bunker, their living situation - if you can call it that - was just too impractical to have a small creature in need of constant attention around. Having a home base makes it easier, Sam’s surprised he hasn’t done it already.

Well… maybe not surprised. The fact is, Dean was right. Sam never really thought of the bunker as home. He’s never had a home that properly belonged to him, or a room that he could call his. Somewhere in the back of his mind he thought he never would. Even after Dean started settling into the bunker, Sam never let himself do the same. Always fearing that eventually this place would be taken from him too, just like every other good thing in his life.

Recently though, maybe after everything they suffered through this past year with the Darkness and still came out on top, it’s made him more optimistic about the future. Now that Cas has finally fallen, for good and by choice, he lives in the bunker permanently. With Charlie visiting ever more frequently, and the additional added bonus of stopping the Darkness - getting Kevin back, the bunker feels more crowded than ever. Yet Sam just doesn't feel like he has a friend all to his own. Not that he blames any of them.

Charlie and Kevin get along well, bonding over their mutual computer geekiness, skilled to a level he never has been. Dean and Cas are, well, Dean and Cas. And besides, even Dean’s noticed that Sam’s a little lonely. Dean told him a couple weeks ago to “please get a friend” after Sam had spent the entire day re-organizing the library. He probably meant a human friend, but a friend is a friend regardless of species in Sam’s eyes.

Arriving at the dog shelter in Phillipsburg assures him that he’s glad he conducted the amount of research that he did. He walks into a spotless, brightly lit lobby, greeted by the sounds of happy barking and the potent smell of dog with an undercurrent of disinfectant.

A cork board just inside the door displays a stencilled title “FOREVER FAMILIES” and underneath that, dozens of polaroid photos of dogs and cats from the shelter being hugged by their new owners, posing in front of the wall adjacent to the board.

Sam spots two hallways that split off the lobby, obviously leading towards the pet enclosures, but directly at the end of the lobby is a large reception desk, and in front of that a tall woman in a white lab coat teaching a beagle puppy tricks.  

“Sit. Sit,” she says firmly. The puppy lolls its tongue, eyeing the treat in her hand excitedly. “Jack, sit!” The puppy trots around in a little circle. The woman, resigning herself to a lost cause, shakes her head with a small smile and tosses the treat into the air, the puppy swiping it then and munching down on it happily.

“Hey, at least he knows how to jump!” Sam jokes, stuffing his hands into his pockets. The puppy, noticing that he has new company, yelps and runs towards Sam, his paws tapping loudly on the linoleum floors and comes crashing into his legs. Sam crouches down to rub at the excited puppy running circles around his feet.

“I’m sorry, he’s really young and excitable--” a pair of black clacking heels approaches and Sam looks up at the tall lab-coat-clad veterinarian.

“No, no it’s okay.” he says, halting her. Her blues eyes are wide with concern, blonde curls bouncing as she stops just a couple feet from him, “I uhh-- I love dogs. That’s why I’m here.” Sam laughs and holds out his hand, “I’m Sam, I called a couple days ago.”

Her expression changes to one of recognition as she grips his hand in a firm handshake. “Oh you’re the guy who called and asked all those really specific questions about our medical practices.”

Sam laughs and rubs the back of his neck, feeling his skin heat up a little. “Yeah sorry about that… I guess I was a little over-cautious.”

“No, it’s good.” She smiles finally and god she’s gorgeous. “If more hopeful pet owners were like you, I’d be a much happier woman. I’m Michelle by the way.”

Sam can only nod and grin like an idiot because damn it she’s funny too.

“So do you want me to show you the kennels?” she asks.

“Yes. Yes I-- lets do that.”

Damn it, Sammy, get it together.

Michelle leads him towards the dog enclosures and he observes happily that they didn’t lie about the size and quality of the facility. They definitely have an easier time being in a small town, because there aren’t many enclosures but the ones they do have are big and open with lots of light and a multitude of toys scattered around for the dogs to play with.

Michelle tells him that there’s one common space for the more young or energetic dogs, and one a little ways down the hall for the older or slower pets that want a little less attention. Sam definitely wants to meet some of them but first, he’s going to start with the puppies.

A chorus of yelping greets him when he opens the door to the first room. Sam laughs to himself a little when he looks down at the happy wagging tails of the crowd of puppies and remembers exactly the reason he’s here.

He plays with the puppies for a lot longer than he thought he would. He’s the only one at the shelter this early though, and once he finds his seat on one of the floor cushions provided, the puppies don’t want to let him up. Some of them are so tiny, like the toy poodle that can’t be more than a few weeks old. The cocker spaniel has planted its head in Sam’s lap for the past twenty minutes because Sam started stroking its extremely soft ears and it didn’t want him to stop. The Australian Sheppard has fetched a tennis ball from across the room about fifty times now.

Sam loves all of them, he does, but none of them feel like his yet. Like they could be his new best friend. He takes it as his cue to leave when a little girl and her mom arrive at the puppy enclosure too. He runs into Michelle again on his way out to meet the older dogs.

“See anybody you like?” she asks, smiling wide.

Yeah, you, he thinks.

“Uhm, yeah all the dogs are great!” says Sam. “I just wanna give ‘em all a chance, you know?”

“Aww, Sam… that’s so sweet!” They’re almost the same height so her blue eyes don’t have to look too far upwards to meet his, her expression one of mildly confused awe. He can’t really blame her, he is pretty awe-some.

This is why Sam needs new friends, he gets all his jokes from Cas.

“Wanna come and introduce me to some?” he offers, holding open the door open for her to the next dog enclosure. Michelle walks through it and tugs once on his shirt to pull him off to the left where a Border Collie lays with its head in its paws on a big pillow.

“This is Cookie, she’s been here for a long time.” Michelle’s voice has s a note of sadness underneath as she crouches down and sits on the hardwood floor to pat the collie on the head, rubbing at its ears.

Sam meets her down on the floor beside the Cookie.

“Why hasn’t anyone picked her up yet?” Sam runs his hand gently through her fur, and after ensuring that she doesn’t recoil from his touch, begins to pet her properly. His hand runs over a small patch of what feels like scar tissue, where none of her black and white fur has grown.

“Well… it’s a lot of things I guess.” Michelle curls her legs up against her chest and looks down gloomily at Cookie. “She was shot.” Sam sucks in a breath in shock. “Yeah, one of the volunteers found her in an alley way, bleeding out. She was in pretty bad shape, covered in dirt like she hadn’t been bathed in weeks, and so so scared. We thought she wasn’t going to make it for a while but…” at this, a smile returns to Michelle’s face, “she’s strong. Three years later and she’s still fighting. And doing better every day.”

Sam rubs one hand over the mark he now knows to be a wound. Why anyone intentionally hurt a dog is beyond him. “Why hasn’t anyone adopted her yet though?”

“She uhh… she gets spooked.” Michelle says, “she’ll go for weeks and be totally fine and then there will be a loud noise, or a kid will pet her a little too rough and she’ll scurry back to her cage and not come out for ages. It’s a task getting her to eat when she’s in one of those states, sleep too.” Michelle shakes her head, a frown forming between her eyebrows. “We don’t know where she came from, but it couldn’t have been anywhere good, and I guess not everybody wants to take on that kind of baggage.”

She sounds a little snarky at the end there and Sam huffs a laugh. “Someone’s a little bitter?”

She looks up in surprise. “Oh! No, no, I just…”

“Michelle, I’m kidding,” he says, holding a hand up in surrender, still chuckling.

“Okay, okay. I just… I do get upset to see animals here for so long, but I understand the hesitation. Besides, I think I kinda wanna have her one day.”

Michelle takes Cookie’s head between her hands and rubs under her jaw lovingly. Sam scratches behind her ears a little and she woofs quietly, shuffling her body closer towards him while still remaining on the pillow.

“I think she likes you.” Michelle whispers, staring up at him with startlingly blue eyes.

“I think I like her too.” He replies, looking back at Michelle fondly. “And I hate to say this but…” Michelle’s face drops, “I think you’re going to be losing your favourite resident today.”

“Wait, really!” Michelle exclaims.

Sam looks down at the old border collie and sees the years of neglect and sorrow in her eyes, and he just knows he can’t walk out of here without saving her.

“Yeah. I wanna take her home with me.”

Michelle smiles all the way through filling out his paperwork. In fact, Sam kind of falls in love with the way joy lights up her face.  He almost feels bad handing her at least three pieces of forged ID in order to get the dog, but he accepts – as he always has in one way or another – that some rules are meant to be broken for the better.

After he’s registered and signed what feels like every piece of paper in the shelter and Michelle hands him a large file folder with about thirty more sheets in it regarding dog care, she finally goes back to fetch Cookie from the enclosure. Michelle returns with Cookie bounding in front of her, reigned in only by the leash Michelle is holding onto tightly.

Their fingers brush for a second when she hands him the plastic handle.

“Okay,” she says, clapping her hand together once in excitement, “I guess you’re done!”

“Wait, do I get a picture?” Sam asks, pointing to the FOREVER FAMILIES cork board behind them.

“Oh gosh, true,” Michelle runs back to the front desk and pulls out a polaroid camera. “Okay, stand over there by the wall,” she says, walking back in her tall heels and gestures to the wall opposite the cork board, motioning for him to crouch down as she does the same.

Sam pulls Cookie close to him and flashes a quick smile as she snaps the shot.

“Perfect,” she peeks out from behind the camera and winks as the polaroid pops out the front of the camera. Sam feels himself blush a little under her gaze and is thankful she turns away to pin it to the board in front of them and write Sam & Cookie on the white space at the bottom.

Now comes that awkward moment where he doesn’t want to leave without getting her number, but he also doesn’t know how to ask. Thankfully, she makes it easy on him.

“I know the number of the shelter is on here,” she says, pulling out one of the sheets from the pile, “but I’m going to give you my personal cell, just in case of emergencies or whatever.”

She hands him the paper back, with the addition of a phone number scrawled in one corner.

“I’m gonna miss this little one a lot.” Michelle says sadly, bending down to rub Cookie’s ears one last time. Sam really feels for her. Cookie’s practically been her dog for the better part of three years. Maybe she doesn’t even have pets at home, Sam doesn’t know. To be honest, Sam doesn’t really know much about her.

But he wants to.

He wants to know this all about this woman who dedicates her time to making sure rescue dogs have a good home, and who’s kind to weird strangers over the phone even when they ask bizarrely specific questions.

“Well maybe…” he starts cautiously, “you could come visit her sometime soon? I don’t live too far away, we could meet up at a local park or something.”

His heart pounds rapidly in his chest in the moments before she answers.

“I’d really like that, Sam.”

“Okay,” he grins.

They’re both smiling like dorky teenagers so Sam thinks this is probably the best time to get out before he starts scribbling Michelle Winchester around her phone number with little hearts, or something as equally high-school.

“Alright. Sweet. I’ll call you.”

She waves him out the door and he walks Cookie to the Impala, opening up the door to the backseat where he already lay out a blanket this morning in hopes that he’d be bringing home a new addition to the bunker.

Cookie hops up and settles into the seat. He cranks down the window to give her some fresh air, and also because he knows dogs like to stick their heads out the window sometimes. He’s not too sure Cookie is going to be one of those kind of dogs though, and that’s okay too.

It’s okay because when Sam hops in the front seat of a car he’s often thought of as home, and angles the rear-view mirror down so he can see Cookie’s fluffy face panting back at him with her tongue lolling out and her tail wagging back and forth, he knows exactly what kind of dog she’s going to be.

She’s gonna be his best friend.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos/Comment/[Reblog it on tumblr](http://deanisthesun.tumblr.com/post/124078383147/best-dog-friends-forever)!


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